Travels in Germany: Return to Munich

With only a few days left until we leave mainland Europe we returned to Munich after a brief visit to the magical town of Regensburg. The weather was against us, and sunny days of summer were ending. Inside activities time, and that means visiting some of the best museums in the country, and a couple others too. We made plans to visit the Lenbachhaus museum first. We first walked through Alter Botanischer Garten, a big park with a couple fountains as some really pretty blooming flowers of multicolored variety, and of course, a Beer garden.

On our way to the Lenbachhaus we passed a building that looked like a museum, so we went inside, and asked the desk man what the entry fee was. He said free, so we thanked him and went inside. Once inside, we were in the inner courtyard of the covered, four story building; there were plaster statues everywhere, not necessarily arranged in any organized way.

Almost all of the statues were copies, many of them of famous statues we had seen in other countries. We wandered through the museum, up and down the staircases, were occasionally we saw a student or a group sitting a table, talking and drinking beers.

It was very cool and worth a visit for sure, as it only took us 45 minutes to see it all. We were then on our way to the Lenbachhaus. The Lenbachhaus is a modern & contemporary art museum and was built in the late 1800s as a Florentine-style villa for a local artist, Franz von Lenbach (Jesse is in front of the modern addition).

There were so many paintings by Wassily Kandinsky, more than I had ever seen in any one museum.

We also learned about the Blue Rider artistic movement, and other artists of the same time period were well represented at the museum, including Gabriele Münter, Franz Marc, August Macke, Marianne von Werefkin, Alexej von Jawlensky (who was Jesse’s favorite), Alfred Kubin, and Paul Klee.

August Macke:

Franz Marc:

The study of the artist the house is named after, Franz von Lenbach, is much like he left it back in the early 1900s, and is worth making one’s way to. The intricate wall carvings, inlaid paintings, archways, ceilings, and furniture are all impressive.

Finally we entered the outdoor garden, with its three fountains and many benches for sitting and relaxing.

We relaxed the rest of the evening, our feet weary, under cloudy and sometimes rainy skies. The rain continued the next day, but that just made it more appropriate to visit a couple more museums. We were lucky to not have to use our umbrella often during the summer, but today we needed it, and were glad we had lugged it around with us all summer long.

We again walked through the park, and passed the sculpture museum, as we had done the day prior, this time making a quick stop in a gallery. It was free and there were a few rooms of contemporary art for sale.

Including this one below which is made of layers of cardboard and looks really cool. It was for sale but unfortunately we’ve not have near enough money to purchase it (yet). 

The Pinakothek is actually two separate museums, one for modern art (Pinakothek der Moderne) and one for fine and other European art (Alte Pinakothek). We went to the modern art museum, first stopping to take the picture at the top of the blog in front of the home of the future.

Once inside we bought tickets for both museums (which provides a slightly discounted rate). The ceilings are huge in the white walled museum, making visitors feel small as they wander the galleries.

There are fine paintings by Picasso,

and many other famous artists as well, including Paul Klee, Andy Warhol, and Kandinsky.

After that we were on to the Alte Pinakothek, our last museum visit on our European vacation. We’ve seen a lot of museums and specifically a lot of fine arts museums; this was a great museum to end on, and I would recommend anybody visiting Munich, after going to the Residence Museum (where we visited a few days earlier), visit this one. Once inside, we entered the foyer between two large staircases; pick a side as they both go to the second floor main gallery.

They have the largest collection of Peter Paul Reubens paintings I have seen.

The walls of this high ceiling gallery are covered in paintings, and the side rooms off the main galleries house even more. There are paintings by Leonardo da Vinci (left) and Rafael;

Hieronymus Bosch,

Titian,

and many Annunciation takes.

One could spend hours in the upstairs gallery alone. The first floor gallery is much smaller, but holds many works by famous artists including Van Gogh, Cezanne, Rodin, Monet and many others.

Van Gogh,

and an artist new to me, Friedrich Overbeck.

We walked back under a drizzle of rain to our hotel (which was also a brewpub) that we had planned to eat dinner at. We got ready and went to eat, though they were packed and we could not get a table. We wandered about the neighborhood, finally finding a place that served pizza and beer. We drank and ate until our heart’s content, then heading back, to prepare for our trip to Burghausen the next day!